Skies Below
by SotF
Summary: When a new fleet vanishes and reappears in the Galactica Universe, several wars become something entirely new. Crossover With Starcraft
1. 00 Arivals Unknown

**AN: **"(Huh?)" indicated telepathy and Protoss speach. This is the first draft of the beginning of my second attempt at a crossover between these series', it has no connection to Wargames other than in the origin of its universes.

* * *

_The thin line between space and hyperspace is something that takes a lot of effort to breach, but with the right equipment the use of hyperspace is a routine activity for capital ships of the Galactic Alliance._

_The use of Hyperspace had created and defused wars over the years. It had also been the beginning factor in the largest confrontation in the history of the galaxy._

_Ages ago a mysterious race known as the Xel'Naga created at least two seperate races, or at least changed them enough to be unrecognizable in anyway to their forebearers. These two races became the seeds that founded the conflict, the noble Protoss and the savage Zerg._

_Amidst the chaos the Xel'naga were nearly driven to extinction by a sneak attack by the Zerg, the remnants seeming to vanish into the void of space leaving scattered relics around the universe_

_Humanity exiled those who were different during this time, losing several colony ships into the void of hyperspace only for them to emerge far from home and lost._

_This also set them between the Zerg and the Protoss they were hunting._

_It took nearly a half century before the human exiles, now allied with the Protoss, managed to regain their safety even managing to stave off the forces of Earth in the form of the UED._

_But even then the Zerg were not defeated, driven off and held back by the GA forces._

_It was in these times that the GA forces began to build up their forces in the hopes of being able to destroy their Zerg enemies. The Thirteenth Fleet was formed from the best technology the GA had from its members, fusing the durability of Terran construction with the powerful shields of the Protoss and the best weaponry both sides had to offer._

_It would have been the ultimate weapon for the GA to use against their monsterous enemies, if it had not vanished on a fleet wide jump exercise._

_Various theories spread across the datanets of the planets of the alliance, eventually it was discovered that a supernova along the course had damaged the nature of hyperspace along their course for hours, either destroying the fleet with all hands or sending them somewhere else, but where that could be, no one could guess.._

_...save those aboard the ships as they emerged to real space in another reality._

* * *

**High Orbit, Unknown Planet, Unknown System****  
GA-SBS-98136 Thanatos, flagship of the 13th Fleet**

Admiral Alexander Blackwell grimaced as he glanced over the reports before him from the scouts and sensor logs.

It had been rough comming out of hyperspace, but there were no casualties, though there were a handfull of wounded and one ship working on restoring its lower decks after the cargo hatches were broken open by some supplies bashing the controls upon reversion.

The massive variant of the older Leviathan class Battlecruiser with its weapons, armor, and shields upgraded to the extreme along with a size that dwarfed the Battlecruiser class ships. Designated the Hyperion Class Space battleship, the design of the flagship was only outdone by the two Super Carriers based primarily on the older Protoss design but able to carry far more fighters, bombers, and interceptors as well as other various things.

"(Adrius' Scout reports multiple, unidentified contacts on sensors,)" Thanos, a dark gray protoss officer, stated calmly with the unspoken language of his naturally psionic people, "(The ships found seem to be unarmed and seem to be crippled.)"

Brushing his goatee absently, the young admiral turned to his compatriot, "Send one of the carriers and two of the Battlecruisers with escort to investigate, do we have any leads on just where the hell we are?"

"(Negative, the other responded with a slight tinge of dissapointment, It's unusual, some stars seem to match up with out charts while others do not, it is...confusing.)"

"Damn," Alexander growled as he tossed the reports onto his desk, "Start a search for a resource base, what we have should let us hold out for a while, but not indefinately."

"(Understood.)"

"And Thanos," the Admiral stated calmly in his gravely voice while he turned to face his friend, "Make sure the contact team knows to bring at least a few competant Ghosts with him, we may not know the language of the locals."

"(I will make sure that is understood,)" came the response of the ancient Templar warrior, "(Along with the standard scanner presence, we will not be decieved by these beings if thy have had contact with the "Queen Bitch of the Universe")"

"Old friend," the dark eyed human responded with a slight grin, "Was that a joke?"

"(I am uncertain how to respond to that,)" came the response as the other being walked out.

"So he does have a sense of humor after all," Alexander mused as he took his seat and checked the pot of coffee on his desks heat before pouring a mug of the still warm brew.

* * *

**2 hours Later****  
Bravo Flight, Inbound to Unknowns**

Captain Jace "Leo" MacDonalds was a calm man if there ever was one, he wasn't the usual flight leader, but was competant at it. He was a deadly combatant though, focusing on precision in his attacks and his buddies had often joked that he was the only fighter pilot capable of dogfighting fleas without missing a shot.

"Leo," came the almost boistrous tone of Lieutenant Nathan "Preacher" Baldwin, "I can read the name of the nearest of these craft."

"You've got to be kiddin' me Preacher," he responded to his wingman, "Sure it looks familiar, but most human offshoots use something at least vaguely recognizable."

"Sir, it's latin," came the response, "It says Scyllia on it."

"Preacher," came the querying voice of Lieutenant Hannah "Artemis" Hawkins, "Isn't that from one of those books by the idiot from the Simpsons?"

"It's from the Odyssey," came the slightly annoyed voice of Preacher, "And whatever your preference for archaic entertainment, you really ought to know the classics."

"Boss, these ships look nearly gutted," came the slight tone of Lieutenant Jacob "Shepherd" Daniels, "Why the hell would anyone leave these people stranded out here?"

"Don't know," Leo responded with a shrug that could be heard by the other Wraith pilots as he watched the shuttle dock with one of the ships, "Guess our team'll tell us when they get back."

"Sir the one they're on reads as the Charybdis," Preacher stated as they circled the small fleet of ships that seemed to have a habit of using latin.

"Unknown hostile contacts on sensors," came the almost frantic comment by Artemis, "The Tael reports armed fighters armed with nukes on a ballistic course, the arbiter's sensors now report that they have fired."

The brief bursts of Interceptors deploying from the two Carriers as he pondered his next step for an instant, "Alright, take an intercept, prevent a second launch, out people are onboard one of those ships and we're here to keep them safe."

"Understood," came the almost in unison response from all three of his flight.

"Get in close, then decloak and power shields," he ordered calmly, "I don't care if you have to cut shields or transfer from the backup generators, but if these things have nukes, they may have worse and I don't want to have to train a replacement for any of you!"


	2. 01 Engagements

**1 Year, 6 Months Later, Inbound New Caprican Nebula  
Battlestar Pegasus**

Commander Lee Adama fumed slightly at his fathers orders to let him commit suicide to cover the escape from the Cylon occupied colony that Baltar had surrendered without a fight

"Unknown DRADIS contacts," his wife stated, "Doesn't look Cylon."

"What?"

* * *

**30 Minutes Later, New Caprica Orbit  
Battlestar Galactica**

The fight was out of control, the Cylon fighters seemed to swarm like insects. Shoot one down, three more took its place.

Admiral William Adama was prepared to die in the fight if that was what it took to save the civilians. Lee would take care of those who made it out and he was willing to make the sacrifice if necessary to do his duty.

The old ship shuddered violently and he realized that the engines were failing.

A small portion of him hoped for a miracle, but the realist in him knew that one was nigh impossible.

"Sir," came a yell from one of the officers, "One of the basestars just went up, and we didn't take a shot."

"What?"

* * *

**GA-SBS-98136 Thanatos**

"Nice shooting," Blackwell congratulated the gunnery team manning the Fenris canon.

The Fenris canon designs were based around the older Yamato, except scaled up for the larger battleship designs as well as adding amplification enhansements similar to those used in the Dragoons. It's combat effectiveness had been proven for the first time in the fight, a single strike managed to vaporize the targeted base star in a single blow.

"I want ground forces deployed, take out those tin cans quickly before they can try for hostages," he ordered, "Send the Chau Sara and Mara Sara to cover the Galactica, tell them to utilize the Tael to get there."

"Aye Admiral," the comms officer responded instantly.

On the display screen before them another Base Star went down to the Akira and Norad IV Battlecruisers Yamato's while a flight of Interceptors poured weapons fire into a swarm of unsuspecting Raiders.

The two Valkerie class cruisers vanished to reappear flanking the damaged Galactica.

* * *

**GA-VC-1987 Chau Sara**

Major Kelly Ashe smirked as she gave the order to open fire with all missile bays.

The swarm of hundreds of missiles keyed into the IFF systems of the cruiser scattered in all directions, each one picking its own target and rocketing away with a look almost like sparklers in her opinion as the steady barrage ate away the enemy fighters.

Her ships sister, the Mar Sara, joined the assault by adding its own missiles to the mix as they slowly rotated around the damaged ship they'd been assigned to protect. The heavy automation of the Valkerie class doing most of the work while leaving her five man crew to watch the fireworks.

* * *

**983rd Tactical Squad, Grizzly above New Caprica City**

Colonel Marcus Saunders grinned slightly as he sealed the helmet of his armor while the other three members of his squad positioned themselves around the deployment hatch.

"Remember, mission priority is to find the resistance leaders and maintain contact," he stated calmly as he felt the stims inject through the back of his neck, "Alright you apes, let's kick some metal ass!"

The mad cackling of Captain Thomas "Psycho" Ulin, a firebat, interupted the thoughts as the pyro leaped into the void with his teammates right behind, "What a rush!"

The brief flash through the air was nothing to the fifty-three year old marine as he relaxed, allowing the servo's in the armor to take the impact with the surface easily.

"Allan," he stated calmly, "Get a firing solution on their escape craft, take it down."

"Roger that boss," the shorter of his two marine teammates responded while bounding through the confusion to vault ontop of a structure that groaned and bent while still supporting the extreme weight of the heavy combat armor.

"Blake," he said to the other while Psycho's flamers burnt through the onrushing machines, "Set up the beacon for our backup, we need to get some medics and the infantry down here for ground support, I'm heading on!"

"Understood," came the response as he charged headlong into the fray.

* * *

**New Caprica City**

Cally Tyrol was startled by the roar of weapons fire roared around her while a massive figure, over twenty feet in height passed overhead with a slow gate pouring gunfire into a group of Centurions dumb enough to stand out in the open.

A half dozen ships seemed to come in quick and low, engines flaring and kicking up a dust cloud as they skidded to a halt. Human looking soldiers as well as odd beings with energy weapons seemed to pour out of the hatches along with various vehicles of war.

The sonic booms of fighters breaking the sound barrier resounded through the camp with repeated cracks as the low flying craft of a golden color swooped by alternating between short and violent duels with Raiders and strafing runs on the Heavy Raiders on the ground.

Brilliant multicolored explosions were visible in space as what seemed to be fleets duked it out in an amazingly one sided.

Who were these people she wondered while taking cover.


	3. 02 Battlegrounds

**Bravo Flight, Orbit New Caprica**

Leo brought his Wraith up on its tail to hover before rolling the nose to complete the loop and accelerated through the spindles coming from the basestars central core, precise canon shots picking off turets as he seemed to enter an almost freefall towards the planet though with a flat plane to the enemy capital ship.

Bravo Flight had orders to cripple the target ship for capture and study, and so he and his flight were picking off defenses as the Daelus, a Corsair, positioned itself to disable the Cylon ships engines.

Preacher's fighter blasted past, before firing a pair of missiles directly into the basestars hangar bay. The explosion of the fuel lines for the Raiders and Heavy Raiders erupted in a gout of flame and debris that dissipated quickly as the escaping oxygen was consumed or scattered through the harsh vaccuum.

"And the good lord said, 'Let there be light!'" the Lieutenant crowed as he reversed thrust away from the ship to circle around for another pass.

"Can it Preacher," Artemis stated as she pounced from her cloaked position to strike a trio of Raiders closing on the Daelus, each of the Cylon craft exploding with a single precise shot from her canons, "We've got enough work to do without adding your commentary to it!"

"Alright, alright," the fighter jock muttered, "Everyone's a critic."

Shepherd smirked slightly as he broke off, diving through the enemy formations to draw as much fire on his craft as he could, his ability to attact pursuers was what gave him his callsign in the first place.

"Let's play a little game of follow the leader," he chuckled as what seemed like five dozen Raiders took the bait and went into pursuit of the thrill seeker.

"Maniac," Leo muttered to himself.

A sudden burst of saphire energy that cascaded over the enemy ship caught there attention.

"Thantos," he stated calmly as he switched to a direct line to the command ship, "This is Bravo Flight, target five is silent, send the shuttles to take the ship."

* * *

**Colonial One, New Caprica City**

Gaius Baltar froze in panic as the entire group of skinjobs seemed to jerk like puppets on strings and rise to their feet like zombies. Blank looks seemed to fill their eyes along with an odd red glow, almost like a mix between blood and flame.

The room seemed to lighten as if a new light had pierced the clouds of smoke and ash from the fight that combined with the verpresent clouds of the dreary world, but not a light that promised warmth and thought, but a seemingly tainted light of a color the same as the light burning in the eyes of the Cylon overseers.

The light seemed to grow brighter slowly as a loud humming flooded his mind as the almost ghostly illusion of Six in his head seemed to shriek in pain from the power flowing through the room like a typhoon.

A figure seemed to slowly materialize from his nightmares at the entrance to his office. Flickering red like a mix between naked flames of crimson and ruby electricity around what seemed to be an almost dessicated humanoid body within of a darkened and seemingly charred color, blinding eyes of white light bore into him.

His worst nightmares seemed to come at him from all directions.

It felt like thousands of tiny claws slowly worked through his synapses and the man realized that he could no longer move from his seat. His conscious mind could not tell if it was from fear or if some other force held him there, but his muscles would not respond to his commands.

"(POWER OVERWHELMING)" a voice that came from everywhere and yet nowhere at the same time errupted through the room.

His voice finally returned to him for a moment and he screamed as this spectral beings almost angelic eyes amidst what seemed to be the very fires of Hades locked onto his own...

* * *

**Streets, New Caprica City**

Marcus growled slightly as he backhanded one of the tincans, sending the huamoid machine flying nearly fifty feet as he ran out of ammunition for his heavy canon.

A Vulture roared past heading towards a firefight in the distance while towering Goliaths patrolled the distance, pouring heavy canon and rockets into the landing pads for Heavy Raiders.

He was a walking juggernaut compared to these pathetic pieces of garbage, the nearly eleven foot height he had in the armor with machine backed muscles made him stand out like a titan as he tore through them towards the source of the broadcasts he'd been told were from the resistance.

The satchel on his back of some of the infantry weapons the resistance should be able to handle decently.

"I'm looking for a Colonel Tigh," he stated calmly as he tore the head off of the last of the nearby Centurions while glancing into the building marked on his armors HUD.

The old man with an eye patch dropped his drink with a startled look.


	4. 03 Ghostly Assault

**Cylon Basestar, Orbit New Caprica**

Fifty Centurions positioned themselves within the damaged launch bay as the craft of their enemy aproached. While the slow and almost ponderous craft looked more unwieldy than the Heavy Raiders or any other craft that the Cylons had to offer, it seemed to be packed to the teeth with guns that seemed to rip through the Raiders in a way that seemed almost surreal to the Eight that stood back to watch.

The ship seemed to pause and rotate for a moment and a hatch opened, it was then that she realized the error of trying to face these people.

* * *

**1 Minute Earlier  
Grizzly, Orbit New Caprica**

Nathan "Wolf" Harris was a unique individual to say the least. He was a scrapper of talent that would have landed many in jail or prison except for the powerful psionic gift that had been what placed him firmly in the Ghost programs of the Alliance forces.

His primary gift had been telekinesis of a level that had terrified the trainers at the academy, especially combined with what had been referred to as combat precognition as another of his talents.

The young man was certainly not a people person, more likely to violently lash out at those who even annoyed him, but the training had tempered that to some extent and turned someone who would probably have died in a drunken brawl on one of the outer colonies into a veritable force of nature.

It had been that very capability that impressed Executor Huros of one of the Dark Templar enclaves that gained him some training that few Terrans had attempted and even fewer had suceeded in completing, something he had done with the drive and speed that topped the Protoss warriors who had studied for decades longer.

Now he stood alone in the deployment compartment of the Grizzly as it aproached the crippled ship of these Cylons. The heavy material of the armor was a stark reminder that he was in space where a mistake could cause his own death, and the heavier armor designed for those missions had a few advantages to the lighter atmospheric armor he was used to. The servo's allowed him to pull off herculean feats of strength while cutting speed and maneuverability slightly though allowing more time under cloak and enhansed optics and more weaponry options.

His pale brown eyes surveyed the entrance he'd be using to enter the enemy craft to attempt to take down its central core. The burning crimson of the helmet optics over his left eye was the only source of light in the darkness, something that seemed eerily like the slowly moving light that served as the eye of his enemy.

Wolf had only been given the assignment a short time earlier, barely enough time to suit up after a slight malfunction on the Thanatos' shuttlebay had scrapped the Marine assault that had been planned for a strike by a Ghost, namely him, the only Omega level psionic onboard the battleship that hadn't already been deployed to the planet below.

The emerald timer projected onto the helmets HUD flashed zero and the hatch erupted outwards as he took a flying leap into the burned out hanger bay.

Bringing the twin assault rifles he carried up into seperate firing positions, Wolf opened fire while allowing the autotargeting of his suit to guide that portion of the assault as the dull thud of the maglocks in his boots lock on as he touched the plating of the hangar floor.

His mind reached out, finding anything not anchored down through the hangar as he advanced while creating a maelstrom of debris around him like a swirling vortex of death and destruction as some of the still functioning Cylon craft were pulled free to join the devistation, the mental shrieks of the entities being brushed aside.

Emotionless eyes locked onto the single humanoid enemy before him as her protectors weapons opened up only to have their bullets intercepted mid air by a chunk of the ceiling that cleared them away like a child clearing a checkers board.

Wolf's armored hands released the weapons they held, allowing them to be pulled back to his shoulders by the cables attached to them as he made a motion almost like one picking up a goblet with his right hand. The Centurions were pulled into the maelstrom for a moment before the entire vortex condensed before the ghost, crushing all the material within, including the disoriented and panicking Cylons, into a two yard thick, perfect sphere that hovered above his hand just a fraction of an inch from contact with the armor.

His eyes locked with those of the dark haired woman before him, the Cylon in human guise as the glare tint faded from the visor to allow her a clear look at the one who had once been called a demon in human form.

The almost fanged grin made her start to shrink back before he seemed to make a grasping motion with his left hand, pulling her up off the ground to float before him while the continued motion and a slight wave as she was pulled towards him.

He diverted his attention to send the sphere he'd created crashing forwards through bulkheads and other things like a demented pinball through the craft, only releasing it from his control when the lights flickered out.

The girl lashed out with a punch, trying to do anything to harm the ghost but her hand seemed to freeze as the telekinetic brought his full attention to bare on her.

The cold light of the red targeting scanner slowly surverying her face, sending fear through her as her mind processed for the first time how evil that light felt and what the humans who had fought Centurions must have felt.

Wolf sighed slightly in something almost like pleasure as he crushed every bone in her hand from the wrist down with all the effort of a shrug.

"Pathetic really," he chided slightly in an almost bemused and yet bored tone, "The Zerg are far more troublesome, they can even fight back."

She felt fear as he reached into her mind, the minor telepathic talent enough to do what he wanted by brute force what the Dark Archons could do by finess and with little more than a thought.

Tearing through her mind he found a strange portion that seemed to stretch to infinity causing a smile to cross his lips, a dark scar that crossed his mouth looking all the more menacing.

"I know your secret," he almost sang in a seductive tone right by her ear, "Just a little change and you'll be all they you'll ever be, and you can truely die."

Her eyes widened in fear as he used the slight talent like a scalpel and she screamed in pain as her body convulsed before settling into an almost constant twitching.

Almost gently Wolf sat her down beside him, brushing her dark hair out of her face with his gauntleted hand as he activated his comms unit.

"Wolf here," the ghost stated with a slight hint of superiority in in the tone, "Mission complete, I've got myself a little toy..."

He paused to tap the unconscious Cylon with his boot, "...to play with when I get back, make sure I get a pair of 'cuffs as well."

The almost mocking laughter of the maniac flooded the channel. 


	5. 04 Devistation

**Cylon Basestar "Delta", Orbit New Caprica**

The Five grimaced slightly as an explosion pinned his right arm under, his left hand frantically worked through the emergency overrides for the weapons arrays. A low tone sounded as the light switched from a blood red to a bright green.

The injured cylon breathed what almost amounted to a sigh of release as a hatch swung open and a screen displaying the word armed.

"Game over," he growled as he yanked a revealed lever besides it, launching the basestars entire arsonal of nukes at the planet below.

An instant later his glee at sucess turned to abject horror as a gunshot rang out and the screen exploded, showering the hapless cylon with shards and a lightly armored figure dropped into view from a perch above.

"Not quite," the calm voice, a voice distorted by a breath mask and helmet, "The game has only just begun."

The five was distracted by the tone, one that held a hint of sorrow and yet something far different while simultaniously familiar.

"What game?" he finally asked, confusion easily seen across his features.

"The game we were so foolish to begin," came the response in an almost philisophic tone as the warrior leaned against a wall while making gestures to aid in converying the message, "In our arrogance we took what we believed had been the advantage humans possessed, but in so doing we discarded the very thing that balanced that..."

"Who are you?" the Five managed to ask.

"I am many things to many people," came the easy response, "But you may call me Janus for the time being."

"Tell me," the trapped man queried as he leaned back, "Why are you doing this?"

"To answer that, a bit of history is needed," Janus said with a smirk visible within the voice itself, "We took the anger and violence of humanity and used that to create ourselves, but in so doing, most of us never learned that very truth..."

"Truth?"

"That there are things that we either could not or would no even try to copy," the sad and sorrowfull tone and a slight shift of posture made the Five nervous, "The hate is balanced by love, anger by mercy, and many more, these things the ones that infilitrated, for the most part, learned quite well it seems from what I recieved from the one your kind refer to as a traitor."

"You mean the Eight who took the Child!"

"She took her own child," the whistful tone changed to anger and a fist banged against the wall, "There is very little one will not do for their own, I know, I think about what I was meant for and feel sick."

The gloved hand reached up and flicked a switch, retracting the reflective plating of the face.

"So your a Three," the dark haired man said with almost a chuckle as he leaned back, "I should have known."

"I've become something more than that," she answered, "That term no longer holds meaning to me at least, of those who were found by these people, these humans that were so different than any I had ever thought of, but I digress, to me I only found out recently what I truely was, but it did not change me, I've accepted it, but first I am me, I am the one who was used to infiltrate, the being your kind used as a mask became the reality."

"Then why are you here?" the five asked the woman in armor as he tried to slink back, away from the one who had denounced what he believed to be true.

"To see for myself, with my own eyes what I was made of, if I truely could follow through with my beliefs," she responded, "I came to late to stop another atrocity, another in the long list of our species nearly countless ones."

She paused amidst the tirade, "I have my own family that I would give everything to protect, even if the daughter I care for is not my flesh and blood, I still care for her as if she was."

The almost shocked impression of the other gave her a moments pause, "I joined the Alliance because I would do anything for my daughter, even become the instrument of death for my own species if I need to, her life is what I hold most dear to me."

"Now what?" the Five asked with a concerned look.

"Now," she responded raising the gun one more time, "You die!"

And the trigger was pulled, a gunshot and a cross between a scream and a whimper filled the room.

* * *

**GA-SBS-98136 Thanatos, Orbit New Caprica**

Blackwell watched in almost silent horror as one of the two boarded basestars unleashed a salvo towards the planet.

Three of the meapons went off in rapid sucession, destroying the engines of the Valkyrie frigate Athens and sending the frigate crashing into the Escort Carrier "Garinthror II" in a devistating explosion as the impact set off the missile frigates munitions while thousands of nukes rained down on the world below before being, mainly, picked off by a handfull of other Valkyries, the sister ships of the Athens firing everything into the maelstrom to pick out all but a few of the devistating weapons.

The battle had been majorly onesided before, only fifteen fighters down, seven of which were the fully upgraded big brothers of the Interceptors and only one of the pilots hadn't managed to eject for pickup.

The ground fight was slightly more of a fair fight with a handfull of fatalities when they had superior firepower and suprise on their side.

But the deaths of nearly a thousand of those under his command was new to him, and it was a shocking revelation.

He'd gained command of the fleet while captaining the Archimedes, one of the science vessels that saw action through most of the Zerg Wars. There it was a more even fight with casualties on both sides, if you could call the deaths of Zerg casualties, but the Garinthror was one of the remaining ships of the older designs and had been designed for escort with more interceptor bays than other ships of its size to defend the larger ships.

"Goodbye Barton," he whispered, the name of one of his old friends, the man who had been his first officer on the Archimedes and then been given command of the dead Escort Carrier, "May you find peace within the void." 


	6. 05 The Others

**1 Year, 6 Months Earlier  
BCS-3119 Prometheus, Unknown Space**

Captain Josef Callahan grimaced slightly as he climbed off the rough and worn deck plating of the ancient battlecruiser.

He was one of the few to have not changed loyalties from the extinct Confederacy that had been smashed first by the traitor Mengsk and then by Marshal Raynor. He'd been newly promoted, given an almost obsolete battlecruiser of the same class as the Hyperion which was made famous by Raynor. Recently the Prometheus seemed to be the last operating ship of its type after the Hyperion was turned into a Museum on New Terra after Liberty was elected President and had named the Marshal to be head of the military.

A small part of Josef's mind now wished he had accepted the offer to join the Alliance, if at least for the chance to have one of the newer ships in his current state. His own pride and dislike of the other race in the Alliance at the time had held him back, at least that's what he decided had caused it after some honest thought, but at the time he'd said it was because of his oaths and the fact that he knew his ship was better than anything else.

He'd been operating as a merc of sorts, playing escort to ships heading to the outer colonies.

The two squadrons of Wraiths, four dropships, four grizzleys, and a pair of bombers that had seen better days, though three of the dropships were bad off and one of the Grizzleys had no working weapons if he were honest and he only had fuel for one of the squadrons of Wraiths.

But he'd been escorting freighters to the Gemini station near Zerg territory when his troubles had begun.

The Prometheus had turned to leave when the Swarm entered the system, trillions of them from a point between the station and the local star, the light had been entirely eclipsed by their sheer numbers...a sizable portion of which had followed him into hyperspace as he watched in shock and horror.

Everything had seemingly gone wrong from that point on as one of the creatures that seemed like the older Overlords attached itself to his ship right when everything went to hell as Hyperspace seemed to shatter and reconfigure in an instant. His body felt as if it were ripped to pieces and then shoved back togather as the hull breach sirens sounded and the lights flashed bright red.

He hit the deck as one of the lights above him detonated into a shower of brilliant sparks that seared his vision.

It was then that his senses returned as the ship reverted to realspace and it all began.

Without thinking he ordered the ship to make another jump to get away from the Zerg forces that had followed through the last one, a brief prayer that they wouldn't have another jump like the last one.

* * *

**Prometheus, Cargo Bay 3**

Captain Jim Harris grimaced as the few soldiers aboard the battlecruiser assembled in the internal airlock of the cargo bay. The heavy rifle he carried rested easily against his shoulder as he checked the readouts of the interior.

The Zerg thing was attached and had burned through the cargo bay doors and it seemed like a handfull of slightly odd Zerglings had entered the bay.

He grimaced slightly as the sensors zoomed in to one for a deeper scan and his eyes widened slightly.

"Devouring ones," he hissed as the half dozen soldiers, ten marines and a pair of firebats, positioned themselves around the hatch while the enemy out numbered them at least two to one with a pair of Hunter-Killers moving clear of the attached monstrosity.

He paused a moment as his eyes surveyed the troops as they positioned themselves for the battle to come.

"Men, stay in cover, these ones are nasty and we're here to keep them from killin' everyone on this ship," he ordered calmly, "Stay frosty and don't get your asses killed."

A nod came in response as a medic exited the elevator behind them and he hit the controlls.

"Now!" he yelled in a commanding tone, "GO! GO! GO!"

One of the firebats seemed to have ignored his warnings and went charging headlong through the hatch as it opened.

"CHARGE!" the flame wielding lunatic roared as he passed through the enemy groupings.

"Jenkins?" one of the marines yelled, "What the fuck do you think you're doin!"

"Stick to the plan!" Jim stated quickly, "Move it people, Jenkins being a twit doesn't mean we go nuts to, keep cool, keep alive!"

"Sir, Private Jenkins vital signs have ceased," Doctor Tanya Janson stated calmly from behind, "He's dead Jim."

"Ah hell no," one of the marines growled as he pulsed fire into one of the Hunter Killers, leaving it a twitching corpse, "You killed Leroy!"

"You bastards," one of the others added in indignation as they drove the monsters back with their weapons fire.

An idea hit Captain Harris as he picked off another one of the almost insectile abominations, an exploding round tearing the remaining Hunter Killer in half.

"Fall back people," he yelled, "Change of plans!"

"Roger," came the quick response as the soldiers dashed back into the relative safety of the airlock.

Jim paused for a moment as he pulled one of the grenades from his belt and let the computer in the armor take over the aiming function and let it fly before diving through the doors and started them closing.

The remaining Zerg inspected the flashing and beeping object and realized what it was to their horror as it settled beside the shredded carcas of the dead firebat...

* * *

**Prometheus, Bridge**

Josef nearly fell for the third time as an explosion rocked the ship and the section of the hull that was pierced flashed on the screens before him to show the new damage as the ship dropped into realspace once more.

"What the hell was that?" he yelled into the comms with the troops he'd sent in.

"Situation under control, Zerg neutralized," came the response from Jim Harris with an audible sigh, "Had to use some extreme measures to suceed, we lost one of our firebats, a Private Jenkins, Sir."

"Next time I send you into a fight on this ship," he snarled back, "Assume I want you to do as little damage as you can."

With that he shut off the comms and glanced at the navigator.

"What's the nearest station we can get repairs at?" he asked.

Lieutenant Jason Miller shrugged, "We're off the maps, nothing matches the star charts."

"Then where the hell are we?" the Confed captain asked as he seemed to collapse bonelessly into his chair.

* * *

**Unknown Space**

A cerebrate watched the new space around it with almost bemused interest as something best viewed as a savage smirk crossed its thoughts.

A new place to expand and conquer. This place would kneel before the Swarm... 


	7. 06 Incomming

**Resistance Headquarters, New Caprica City**

Marcus' eyes widened in horror as the news spread across the TacNet, a trio of nukes were inbound having slipped through the fleet above with the destruction of two capital ships.

"Jackson," he yelled into the comms, "We have incomming, get everyone you can into places where we can protect them!"

Allan's response was immediate, "Mother Fucker!"

"Tone down the crap Captain," the Colonel responded in a slightly chiding tone, "Make sure as many civies as possible survive this!"

"Understood."

He turned his armored helmet to glance at the startled man before him.

"Colonel," he stated calmly, "I'm Colonel Marcus Sanders of the 13th Fleet of the Galactic Alliance, we're here to pull your ass out of the fire, but there're problems."

"Problems?" Tigh managed to ask after the confusion wore off to some extent.

"One of the Basestars above is attempting to glass the colony, we have three nukes inbound."

Marcus was glad the translators were working properly, it had taken a while to make them work right as several members of the fleet learned the variant of latin the Colonials used while nearly all of their rescuees had gained some fluency in Standard English.

His pause ended after the one eyed man seemed to pale slightly, "Do you know of anyplace safe?"

"Nothing that can stand up to a god damned nuke, much less three," the man stated calmly as he poured himself another drink after retrieving the matal mug off the floor.

The conversation was interrupted by a twerping noise on the TacComms that signaled a handfull of the Drones having shield generators in the process of warping in.

"Actually," Marcus commented as he breathed a slight sigh of relief, "We may just have a chance after all."

"Do tell."

* * *

**Central Street, New Caprica City**

A quartet of heavy dropships skidded to a halt in the main street of the settlement as marines and mechanics poured out while a pair of drones and a half dozen SCV's came flooding out of the one in the center.

The small, mechanical devices rapidly went about their work placing teleportation beacons for the more difficult structures as the SCV's started errecting bunkers and missile turrets to cover the generators and shield projectors appearing as technicians entered the structures to power them up.

The bunkers filled nearly as soon as they were completed as another pair of heavy dropships landed to release a dozen Vultures that rocketed away to continue in the mission of hunting down the Cylons on the planet.

Tracy Larr's cloaked herself as she dashed out into the streets with a pair of Dark Templar as an escort. She was a young woman, just trained enough to allow into the field. She was also a unique warrior, her pale skin signifying the effects that had transformed her from a Ghost into a Specter.

Her eyes seemed to glow slightly behind the helmet as she charged headlong into the thick of it crimson blades of raw psionic energy poured from her wrists into the distinct shape of blades with more wicked edges than those of the Protoss beside her before signalling them to remain in the fray while she investigate a sense of fear and desperation nearby and vaulted to the rooftops with the barest hint of her power, the power she kept a close clamp on to keep from being consumed by the very powers she wished to use.

Her enhansed eyes spotted nearly three dozen of these "Centurions" moving in on a seemingly young mother with her baby.

Anger flooded through her system and the dim glow burst into a blazing inferno as she levitated to slowly to the ground as the winds seemed to kick up to her indominable will.

A moments motion covered the gap between her and the vile machines, the warp blades cleaving one clean down the middle before an unleashed wave of telekinetic power crushed another like a beer can on a drunks head.

The new threat revealed, the Cylons turned to strike the seeming titan of destruction that seemed to teleport rather than move as a he seemed to slow only to destroy one or two cylons.

An errant wave of the hand and a wall of telekinetic force rose between her and her enemies as they opened fire, the heavy weapons leaving only flashes on impact before the wall ecame a tsunami like wave that swept them up and into the air before slamming them into and through th walls of surrounding buildings as her body began to levitate unconsciously and her carefully honed blades seemed to form an aura of destruction around her working in their own way.

* * *

**Shield Control, New Caprica City**

Lieutenant William Brahm whispered the various paths to himself as he frantically worked through the powerup stages of the system. The timer was counting down and he really hated working under pressure, but it was now down to do or die time.

Three commands left and fifteen seconds.

A few more keystrokes.

Two commands left, with ten seconds.

A brief sigh as the last one was entered and he heard everything powering up.

Five seconds and he hoped the shields would activate.

Two seconds and the light of the shields flashed briefly and the sparks of the atmosphere interacting with the barrier.

One second and he hoped that the shields would hold.

And impact... 


	8. 07 The Might Of The Swarm

**1 Year Earlier  
Eidolon VII, Cylon Mining Facility**

An Eight who had taken to referring to herself as Night watched the various machines work, the automated processes of harvesting the various metals required for constructing the Cylon ships and units. She was the only biological cylon on the planet and had been assigned as an overseer of the facility after the more "human" of her kin had decided that they could have their own little captive population of humanity for their use.

Recently things had gotten odd, strange disapearances had forced her to call in a large number of Centurions for patrol purposes to find out what the hell was going on after one of the few she already had was found in a state that was best described as eviscerated, but the planet was lifeless when the council had set up shop on this out of the way hellhole.

The strangeness had begun shortly after an anomaly on the sensors had been detected and then vanished on the far side of the planet, but even the search patrols had found nothing.

Her attention shifted from her thoughts as the squad of Centurions reached the area and a visual display seemed to activate instantly before her.

An abandoned mine shaft from the earlier mining before the upper layers were tapped out, but it was strange to her now. The machines steps seemed to make an odd crunching sound rather than the normally hollow echoes of their normal steps.

It was moister than it should, the light atmosphere of the mines was normally used to keep pressure within and allow easy clearing of liquid pockets and the like without it freezing for problems.

A brief flash of motion brought her attention to a specific screen, the one of the scouts before the feed was severed and the alert was sounded.

"What the hell..."

* * *

**Tunnel XXIV**

The beast destroyed the intruder, an odd machine that tasted almost like the Protoss ones to its fangs. Dropping the sparking and ravaged machine it crawled slowly across the ceiling between the support struts towards the next one as its connection to the Cerebrate passed all of its information along to its countless siblings that lay in wait around the machines colony.

Motion caught its eye as the human shaped metals moved under him and he lashed out with a stream of spines that reduced anothers head to a look almost like a detonated can and impaled a third having finished a third of the enemy forces in less than that many minutes.

Millenia of evolution in several galaxies and even realities had still left most sentient life with one major weakness, they lacked the instinct to look up for threats first.

And the Hydralisk took advantage of this by dropping amidst the machine enemy and attacking like a rabid bear, its wild strikes savaging seven more but only dropping six of them with the seventh suffering major damage. One of the other two was also damaged but had managed to kill the beast before it could destroy more of the cylon forces.

The beasts death scream filled the dark maze as its burning eyes faded to lifelessness.

The three Centurions seemed to almost visibly relax as they surveyed the corpse and prepared to retrieve the beast for examination when thousands more eyes seemed to flood the darkness around them.

The machines felt an even more alien emotion, for the first time the Cylons felt fear as the might of the swarm crashed into them like a flood and the attack began in an instant before the machine enemy realized that the place was claimed by the swarm in the name of the Queen of Blades.

The three were reduced to scrap as hundreds of Zerglings swarmed over them on their way out of the tunnels towards their goal of the surface facility.

* * *

**Surface Mining Facility**

Night stared at the empty screens before her until the alarms sounded again to signify a perimiter breach. A glance through the security cameras showed thousands of these monsters pour out of the abandoned tunnels and into the camp as the Centurions tried to stand their ground in small numbers.

Quickly she dashed for the Heavy Raider she had stashed away as a just in case precaution and started lift off protocols. In the hopes of escaping somehow from this madness.

As the craft lifted off and out of the hanger something immense rose before her and engulfed the craft in its gargantuan jaws before they closed with a snap and everything went black.

The Eidolon system was the first to fall to the servents of the Queen of Blades and her Cerebrates... 


	9. 08 Nightfall

**New Caprica City, Shield Generator Facility**

At first there was nothing, but only for long enough for a breath to be drawn in if one were swift about it.

Then a brilliant flash in the shield that expanded outwards like ripples upon a pond across the distortion in the sky caused by the barrier.

Fire and light spread across the defense like a tsunami before the distinct roar of the actual blast flooded the people within as the generators hum grew earsplitting from the strain of fighting the attack.

Blinding light flooded the ramshackle town of the colony as screams spread from those who had not taken cover or shielded their eyes.

And then it was over as silence reigned supreem across the battlefield once more with even the machines falling silent to survey the effects of the nuclear device that had been unleashed upon them, only the nigh unhearable hum of the shield generators ensured them that they were not dead as of yet.

"Construction team," came the cackling tone of the comms from Brahms helmet as it lay on the floor beside him, discarded while he worked on activating the systems that defended them, "Status report."

Grabbing the device and putting it back in place a moment later, "Brahm here, I think everything is intact but I don't have sensors and visual is difficult from my position, shields are stable, landing structures remaining at 100."

"Good work Lieutenant," came the calming and yet mechanical response response of the coordinator AI for fleet operations, "You should soon recieve a sensor overlay, the Einstein is being deployed above the shields and will be in contact."

"Understood," he answered before the signal ended and with a sigh of relief almost collapsed into his seat.

* * *

**New Caprica City, GA Command Center**

Marcus groaned slightly at the one eyed man he'd dragged with him through the streets wondering if the guy was okay in the end after a group of Centurions shot up the place the Colonial Resistance was holed up in pausing only to add a frantic young lady and a baby to those with him as he headed for the command center under construction beside the shield generator and other facilities.

He really hated dealing with these people.

* * *

**High Orbit, New Caprica  
GA-AC-418277 Troy, Team 12**

Captain Jacob Alexander relaxed slightly as the ships systems began to kick in around the modified cargo bay as the assembled team of Medics and SCV clad engineers prepared to board the damaged ally they'd aparently come to rescue.

The rapid preperation had left them with only a few marines joining as a bodyguard unit as well as one of the refugees from the Charybdis, a newly trained Lieutenant Charon Salvon, as a translator. Then they had their trump card, one of the robotic assault bots designed to aid in dealing with Zerg hives without risking human life.

It was also designed to give support to other types of units such as the support crew put togather to make sure the Galactica remained in one piece after the firefight was over.

He closed his eyes and the entire group started the slow countdown as the psychic dampners came up to remove the odd sensations the warping caused unprotected beings due to disorietation and the slight touch of the void, something that had limited their use to vessels and other contained systems rather than troops save for persistant gates like the Warpgates the Protoss had on their major worlds before the invasion of Aiur and that now offered fast and reliable transit between the planets of the Galactic Alliance.

* * *

**Elsewhere**

Something was stirring, several somethings in fact entities that sensed a vaguely familiar psychic presence across the great void and morass. Memories of another reality played through their long dormant minds as these beings awoke to the universe they had banished themselves to long ago when their creations had turned upon them and only a few of their kind had remained. 


End file.
